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SRI LANKA: Police allegedly assault a boy and the man who protests the assault

October 31, 2008

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-243-2008

31 October 2008
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SRI LANKA: Police allegedly assault a boy and the man who protests the assault

ISSUES: Torture; police assault; right to liberty and security; arbitrary arrest and detention;
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that on 1 October 2008 the police allegedly assaulted a man. He tried to prevent a boy at a restaurant from being beaten by the police. As a result he was taken into police custody and again severely beaten by the police.

CASE DETAILS: (Based on the statement from the victim)

Mr. Erandaka Bulathsinghela attended a celebration for Children's Day held at S.D.S. Jayasinghe grounds on 1 October 2008. After the celebration, he boarded a bus getting off at Weligampitiya junction where he transferred to another bus to his home in Ganemulla. At the junction, he stopped by a restaurant to buy some food at 2am on October 2.

While he was waiting, he noticed three men in a white car stop near the restaurant. One man got out and asked a boy who was in the restaurant to come out to him. When the boy approached, the man started hitting him without uttering a word.

As the boy was being beaten, Erandaka went to him and told him not to hit the boy. Then, the man asked, "What authority do you have to tell me not to hit the boy? Do you know who I am?" Erandaka replied, "I don't care who you are but please don't assault the boy". Then, the man   identified himself as Inspector of Police (IP) Nalin from Kandana Police Station. He asked who Erandaka was. Erandaka said that he was a photo journalist. Then IP Nalin said, "Ohh!, people like you are wanted." He then released the boy and started assaulting Erandaka. The IP Nalin ordered two other plain clothes policemen to take him to the police station by taxi. Erandaka was brought to the police station and held in a cell.

After some time, IP Nalin came to the police station. He asked an officer for the key to the cell where Erandaka was being detained. When the officer refused to give up the key, the IP scolded him and got the key anyway. The IP opened the cell and started beating Erandaka again. He punched him in the stomach. Erandaka fell to his knees, with the IP striking him about the face for about 30 minutes. Due to this assault, his mouth, eyes and ears sustained multiple injuries and started bleeding. Erandaka was ordered to remove his shirt and mop up his own blood, which he did.

The IP only stopped the physical violence against Erandaka when two other officers, inside the car with him, came and restrained him. Then, he wrote something in a book in the police station.  Erandaka was unaware of what he wrote. Erandaka's mobile phone, watch and sun glasses were confiscated by two other police officers.

Erandaka suffered severe pain. His lips were cracked and one of his eyes was swollen. Due to the unbearable pain, he begged a police officer near his cell to take him to a hospital. But the officer refused saying, "this is an order from higher officers. I can do nothing".

At 4:30am, a police officer, a friend of Erandaka, working in the same police station came and took him out of the cell. At the same time, the two plain clothes officers changed into uniform and took Erandaka to Ragama Hospital. The police officer, Erandaka's friend, accompanied them. Erandaka was admitted to the hospital at 5:30am and surgery was performed on his cracked lips. A doctor examined Erandaka post-op and wanted to discharge him. However, a second doctor who further examined him decided to admit him to the 11th ward of the hospital. (Please see his photos 1 and 2) At the hospital, he was able to inform his wife of his situation. He was discharged on October 3 and allowed to go home.

After being discharged, he went to a private medical centre where a doctor diagnosed bulging below his ear and a cracked jaw.

On being informed, Erandaka's relatives, on October 2, questioned the reason for his arrest and assault to the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the Kandana Police Station. The OIC replied that there was no complaint filed against him at the police station, but failed to mention his illegal arrest and assault. Erandaka's relatives lodged a complaint at the Police Headquarters in Colombo on October 3. Erandaka was informed on October 24 that Headquarters was investigating the complaint. Erandaka continues to suffer pain as a result of the assault.

Erandaka claims that even though he has received an official letter, he has not been informed of any progress made in the investigation.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write letters to the authorities listed below and urge them to ensure a thorough investigation of this case.

Please be informed that the AHRC has also written a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur and Human Rights Defenders calling for intervention in this matter.

To support this appeal, please click here:

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear _________,

SRI LANKA: Police allegedly assault a boy and the man who protests the assault

Name of victim: Mr. Erandaka Bulathsinghela, 29 years old; photo journalist
Name of alleged perpetrators: Inspector of Police Nalin attached to Kandana Police Station, Kelaniya Dist. (North), Kelaniya Division, Western Province (North) Range
Place of incident: a restaurant, Weligampitiya junction, Jaela, Gampaha district, Western province
Date of incident: 2am on 2 October 2008

I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the assault of a boy and a man. The man was arbitrarily arrested and detained on 2 October and severely beaten by police attached to Kandana Police Station.

According to information received, Erandaka was waiting for the food he ordered at a restaurant in Weligampitiya junction, Jaela, Gampaha district. He was on his way home at 2am on October 2 after taking part in a celebration for Children's Day.  Three men in civilian dress came by in a car and one suddenly started assaulting a boy in the restaurant. When Erandaka asked him to stop beating the boy, the man identified himself as Inspector of Police attached to Kandana Police Station. He released the boy but began to severely beat Erandaka.

I have learned that the IP ordered two other officers to take Erandaka to the police station. Here, the IP assaulted him again for about half an hour in his cell. He was hit and kicked in the body and the face which caused eye and ear damage. Not surprisingly, his repeated requests for medical treatment for his injuries were ignored. One officer, known to Erandaka, took him to Ragama Hospital. Surgery was carried out on his cracked lips at 5:30am and he was admitted to the 11th ward for two days.

I am also informed that when Erandaka's relatives questioned the assault and arrest on October 2, the OIC of the Kandana Police Station avoided replying to the question. He simply said that there was no complaint filed against him but failed to open an investigation. I am aware that Police Headquarters, on October 24, sent a letter to Erandaka, informing him that his case was under investigation.

While welcoming the news that an investigation has been started in this case, I urge you to ensure a thorough and impartial one. Those responsible need to be properly prosecuted and punished according to the law for the assault, arbitrary arrest, detention and failure to provide emergency medical treatment. The negligence of the OIC to investigate, even though Erandaka had been informed, must also be looked into. I also urge you to see that adequate compensation is provided for the violations and injuries that Erandaka suffered at the hands of the police.

This case clearly demonstrates how police misuse their position and abuse the authority given to them under the law. If there are no sanctions for police who misuse power, there will be little room for ordinary people to ask for justice in Sri Lanka and the rule of law will never be normalised.

I trust that you will take proper action in this case.

Yours sincerely,

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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. Jayantha Wickramaratne
Inspector General of Police
New Secretariat
Colombo 1
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 440440/327877
E-mail: igp@police.lk

2. Secretary
National Police Commission
3rd Floor, Rotunda Towers, 109 Galle Road
Colombo 03
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 395310
Fax: +94 11 2 395867
E-mail: npcgen@sltnet.lk or polcom@sltnet.lk

3. Secretary
Human Rights Commission
No. 36, Kynsey Road
Colombo 8
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 694 925 / 673 806
Fax: +94 11 2 694 924 / 696 470
E-mail: sechrc@sltnet.lk

4. Mr. Hemantha Priyasanth Dep
Acting Attorney General
Attorney General's Department
Colombo 12
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 436421
E-mail: ag@attorneygeneral.gov.lk

5. Professor Rajiva Wijesinha
Secretary
Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights
2, Wijerama Mawatha
Colombo 7
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 268 1982

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrchk.org)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
AHRC-UAC-243-2008
Countries :
Issues :
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.